This invention concerns a safety device in the form of a "drowning pin" for quickly locating a drowning victim underwater who must be pulled out and given immediate first aid and medical care. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a safety device which will be self-actuating and which can be easily assembled from readily obtainable and inexpensive components.
It is well known that many persons drown every year, especially children who are subject to accidentally falling into relatively deep water where they cannot be located quickly enough to be rescued and revived. Accidental drownings often occur during family picnics or similar outings near a body of water such as a lake, pond or river, where young children who are poor or inexperienced swimmers fall into the water and suddenly disappear without any visible trace. Even experienced swimmers who are fishermen or boating enthusiasts may fall overboard and be subjected to the sudden shock of cold water causing unconsciousness so that they cannot swim but instead sink down into the water. Workers on bridges or waterfront structures may be injured or knocked unconscious just before falling into the water so as to be unable to save themselves.
These unfortunate circumstances arise all to frequently, and although the best safety precaution is to wear a buoyant safety vest or the like, such garments are relatively expensive and interfere with normal activities so that many persons will not wear them. A few safety devices have been proposed for use by swimmers or bathers where a buoy is releasably attached to a holder worn on the body of the person in the water, the buoy preferably being released by the victim when in fear of drowning. Two such devices were disclosed almost 50 years ago by Neal, U.S. Pat. No. 1,935,229 (1933) and Carlbeck, U.S. Pat. No. 1,955,053 (1934), but require relatively complex and expensive structures making it difficult to encourage their purchase and use. Moreover, these devices do not offer a dye marker or any means of accomodating a dye marker, probably because the devices are intended to be worn during normal bathing or swimming when they are immersed in the water.
Dye markers have been used in conjunction with life jackets as shown by Collyer et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,418,397 (1947) and Bender, U.S. Pat. No. 2,418,392 (1947), but these dye markers require the person wearing the life jacket to release the dye after being in the water. No simple device is offered which will automatically release or give off a dye marker together with the actuation of a buoy or other flotation member, i.e. without requiring some conscious act on the part of the drowning victim.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a simple, inexpensive and unobtrusive safety device which can be readily attached to a potential drowning victim, including small children, preferably to a garment worn by such a person, wherein the device is normally worn outside of the water and is actuated automatically in the event the wearer falls or jumps into the water. The device is to be made from readily available parts and so inexpensive that any person will find it affordable and readily useable and even reusable. Due to its small size and lightness in weight, the device can be pinned or otherwise affixed to a shirt, coat collar, sleeve, wrist band, waist band or the like where it will not interfere with a person's normal activities.
The device of the invention which achieves these objects is made to include a hollow cap member open at one end, a spool composed of a low density material floatable in water, the spool being placed within the cap member, a thread wound on said spool with the free end of the thread extending outwardly from the open end of the cap member, a solid but highly water-soluble closure member fitting over the open end of the cap member and being tightly adhered thereto, a water-soluble marking dye for discoloring water contained on or within the spool member, and means to attach the device to a potential drowning victim, the free end of the thread being tied to said attaching means which in turn is joined to one of said cap and closure members.
The body of the spool preferably consists essentially of a pourous and closed cell, expanded polystyrene, and the thread is preferably selected as a high test, monofilament nylon line. The closure member, which must be very soluble in water, can be in the form of a common sodium bicarbonate tablet. The water-soluble dye can be used in a number of different forms such as a powder, pill or capsule, all readily available as commercial products, to be inserted within a hollow core or axial bore of the spool or else adhered to one end of the spool.
Other objects and advantages of the invention as well as especially preferred embodiments of the safety device are set forth by way of example in the following detailed description, limited only by the scope of the appended claims.